Families now have access to a pediatric emergency doctor 24 hours a day through the Royal University Hospital’s children’s emergency department. Before August 1st, the department was open from 8 a.m. to midnight and after hours, children would be seen through the adult emergency department with a pediatrician on-call.

Vice President of Provincial Programs for the Saskatchewan Health Authority, Corey Miller, says they were able to increase the hours due to successful recruitment efforts, which continue. This is all part of the ramp up to the opening of the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in the fall and it gives staff some time to adjust to new processes prior to the transition to the new facility.

Dr. Ron Siemens, a pediatric emergency physician, says having the children’s emergency department open 24/7 means not having to admit patients to the hospital when midnight comes around because they need a little more observation time. It saves on admissions and it means children will be seen by someone whose expertise is children’s health.